In support of the AMERICAN MASTERS Salinger broadcast, WNET is distributing 30,000 copies of the “Salinger, A Film by Shane Salerno” education poster to schools nationwide. The poster, which can be downloaded here on the AMERICAN MASTERS website, will assist educators in utilizing the PBS broadcast of Salinger (on Tuesday, January 21 at 9 p.m.) in the classroom. An activity-based analysis of The Catcher in the Rye and other works by J.D. Salinger as well as a look into his private life are illustrated by essays and classroom activities included in the poster.

1950s

1950-to-1954 – Worked as a writer for Sid’s Your Show of Shows. 1952 – Mel writes “Of Fathers and Sons” sketch for hopeful Broadway revue Curtain Going Up. Eventually ends up airing on New Faces of 1952. 1954-to-1957 – Works as a writer for Imogene Coca’s revue and also Caesar’s Hour. 1957 – Writes Shinbone Alley with Joe Darion.

1960s

1960 – Mel arrives in Los Angeles and begins scriptwriting duties on The Ladies’ Man starring Jerry Lewis 1960 – Brooks and Carl Reiner begin performing 2000 Year Old Man on the Steve Allen Show. 1961 – 2000 Years with Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks sells over a million albums. 1962 – Writes All American. Despite receiving two Tony Award Nominations, the script and production were chaotic and the show had a poor Broadway run. At the same time Mel began working on a novel entitled Springtime for Hitler. 1962 – Records series of commercials for Ballantine Beer with Dick Cavett as the “2,500 Year Old Man.” 1963 – Conceives idea and narrates short film The Critic. Wins Academy Award for Animated Short Film. 1963 – Mel writes 30 min TV Comedy entitled “Inside Danny Baker” directed by Arthur Hiller. 1965 – Creates Get Smart with Buck Henry. Brooks uninvolved with production after pilot but series ran until 1970 and won seven Emmy Awards, including outstanding comedy series in 1968 and 1969. 1967 – Wins first Emmy for Outstanding Writing Achievement in Variety for a Sid Caesar special. 1968 – Brooks writes and directs The Producers. Wins the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.

1970s

1970 – Brooks writes and directs Twelve Chairs based on Russian novel by Ilf and Petrov. 1972 – Brooks is hired by Warner Bros. along with Richard Pryor, Andrew Bergman, Norman Steinberg and Al Uger as a script doctor for unproduced western comedy calle Tex-X. Eventually hired as director for what would become… 1974 – Blazing Saddles released. Earns $119.5 million worldwide, despite modest budget of $2.6 million. Nominated for three Academy Awards: Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Madeline Kahn), Best Film Editing and Best Original Song. Wins WGA Award for Best Comedy Written Directly for the Screen. 1974 – Directs Young Frankenstein, co-written with Gene Wilder. Earns $86 million worldwide. Receives two Academy Awards nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Sound. 1975 – Brooks creates When Things Were Rotten. A Robin Hood parody TV series that lasts only 13 episodes. 1976 – Silent Movie released. Directed by Brooks, co-written by Brooks and Ron Clark. Earns $36 million at the box office. 1977 – High Anxiety released. Directed by Brooks, co-written by Brooks, Clark, Rudy De Luca and Barry Levinson. First movie produced by Brooks himself. Earns $31 million at the box office.

1980s

1980 – Brooks produces Fatso written and directed by wife Anne Bancroft. First picture produced by Brooksfilms. 1980 – Brooks produces The Elephant Man and hires David Lynch to direct. 1981 – Brooks writes, produces, directs and stars in History of the World Part I. Earns $31 million at the box office. 1982 – Brooks produces My Favorite Year and hires Richard Benjamin to direct. 1982 – Brooks produces Frances.
1983 – Brooks stars alongside Anne Bancroft in To Be or Not to Be directed by Alan Johnson. Earns only $13 million at box office. “To Be Or Not To Be” (The Hitler Rap) from the film’s soundtrack was performed by Brooks and peaked at #12 on the UK Singles Chart in Feb ’84 and #3 on the Australian Singles Chart1986– Brooks produces The Fly. Hires David Cronenberg to direct. 1987 – Brooks writes and directs Spaceballs. 1989 – Brooks creates The Nutt House TV series with co-executive producer Alan Spencer. Series features Harvey Korman and Cloris Leachman and is originally broadcast on NBC. Eleven episodes were recorded but the network aired only six before cancelling the show.

1990s

1991 – Brooks writes and directs Life Stinks. Only film that Brooks directed that is neither a parody or satire on a particular work or genre. Also the last time Brooks played the leading role. 1993 – Brooks writes and directs Robin Hood: Men in Tights. Gene Siskel put the film in his “Worst of 1993” list and said Brooks had “clearly lost his way” in comedy. 1995 – Brooks writes and directs Dracula: Dead and Loving It. 1997-to-1999 – Wins three consecutive Emmy Awards for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for his role as Uncle Phil in Mad About You. 1999 – Awarded Grammy for Best Spoken Comedy Album with Carl Reiner for The 2000 Year Old Man in the Year 2000.

2000s –

2001 – Adapts The Producers into a Broadway Musical. Show breaks all records by taking home twelve Tony Awards. Three went to Mel personally for Best Musical, Best Original Musical Score and Best Book of a Musical. 2005 – Brooks adapts The Producers musical to big-screen adding cast members Will Ferrell and Uma Thurman. 2007 – Brooks adapts Young Frankenstein into a broadway musical. After test runs in Seattle, it opens on Broadway on Nov. 8 to mixed reviews. Closes in Jan. 2009 after 484 performances. 2007 – Brooks creates Spaceballs: The Animated Series. The show runs for only 15 episodes and ends in 2009.2009 – Brooks is one of five recipients of the 2009 Kennedy Center Honors presented by President Barack Obama.2013 – The American Film Institute presents Brooks with the AFI Life Achievement Award.

Robert Rauschenberg is one of the pivotal artists of the 20th century. His work, perhaps more than any other artist of his time, holds a mirror up to our culture. Using the American Masters online essay as a tool, this lesson will examine the cultural context of Robert Rauschenberg’s work. Students will be encouraged to draw inspiration, as Rauschenberg did, from the political, artistic, and social culture of our times.

Grade Level

6 – 8

Subject Areas

Social Studies: American and Art History

Language Arts: writing, reading and presenting research

All kinds of Art

Students will be able to:

Discover what popular art, abstract expressions, and various art movements have been over the last 50 years

Learn the artistic influence of Robert Rauschenberg

Understand how politics has been expressed in art and how art has become political

Understand how history can be interpreted through art and art through history

Understand how art can be used to deconstruct social messages

Learn what materials artists use to communicate and why

Discover how artists find inspiration

Create new and inventive pieces of art using the world around them as resources

Invent their own art movement and construct art that conveys their personal messages

Standards

This lesson integrates the national teaching standards of English and Technology. Students will apply a wide range of strategies for research, comprehension, interpretation, evaluation, languages (written and spoken), diversity, creativity, critical thinking and deconstruction of various mediums. Student will build an understanding of the many dimensions of the educational process including texts, technology, speech, themselves, cultures of the United States and the world, and the human experience. To learn more about national English and Technological standards go to: http://www.iste.org and http://www.ncte.org.

During World War II, Edward R. Murrow became the CBS news correspondent for CBS radio, delivering riveting reports on the bombing of London and the experiences of soldiers. He handpicked a group of reporters, “Murrow’s Boys,” who became known for their reliable news stories. After a brief stint in administration at CBS, he returned to broadcasting, this time in the relatively new technology of television. There, too, he gathered the best researchers and reporters with a commitment to accurate, no-holds-barred reporting. On the inaugural program of WNET (then WNDT) on September 16, 1962, Murrow said he hoped that public television would remedy any reticence on the part of network programming, asserting, “If newness be its vice, let boldness be its virtue.”

This lesson plan will give students an in-depth experience of media literacy by providing an opportunity to analyze Murrow’s thoughts on the responsibility of the media, examine modern issues in depth, and simulate Murrow’s style in the SEE IT NOW format.

MCREL CIVICS, Level 4, Standard 11
Understands the role of diversity in American life and the importance of shared values, political beliefs, and civic beliefs in an increasingly diverse American society.

In this lesson plan, students study the biography and work of F.
Scott Fitzgerald. They learn how the author used autobiographical
elements in writing his stories, and they try a hand at writing a
Fitzgerald-style story with autobiographical elements of their own.

Grade Levels

6-8

Subject Areas

Language Arts, Writing

Objectives

Students will:

Learn about the life and work of F. Scott Fitzgerald in the context
of the Jazz Age

Understand how an author may use elements from his own life in
the creation of fictional characters

Create their own autobiography scrapbook

Write a Fitzgerald-style short story, creating their own characters
and applying elements from their own lives

Materials

A videotape of American Masters: F. Scott Fitzgerald

VCR and monitor

A copy of the story "The Camel’s Back," by F. Scott
Fitzgerald from the book Six Tales of the Jazz Age (Charles Scribner’s
Sons: New York, 1960.)

Writes compositions about autobiographical incidents (e.g., explores
the significance and personal importance of the incident; uses details
to provide a context for the incident; reveals personal attitude
towards the incident; presents details in a logical manner)

Writes biographical sketches (e.g., illustrates the subject’s
character using narrative and descriptive strategies such as relevant
dialogue, specific action, physical description, background description,
and comparison or contrast to other people; reveals the significance
of the subject to the writer; presents details in a logical manner)

Establishes and adjusts purposes for reading (e.g., to understand,
interpret, enjoy, solve problems, predict outcomes, answer a specific
question, form an opinion, skim for facts; to discover models for
own writing)

Lucille Ball was a great comic actress. After starring in more
than 60 movies and being known as the “Queen of the B-movie”,
she found her identity as a clown on the long running TV seriesI Love Lucy. In this lesson plan, students study images of
women in movies and television, contrasting the ideal of physical
beauty with the risks an actress takes to be funny. They also learn
about physical comedy, discuss what makes clowning funny, and get
to try it themselves.

Grade Levels

5-6

Subject Areas

History, Drama

Objectives

Students will:

learn about images of women in Hollywood cinema, in the 40s and
50s and today

participate in a warm-up and comedy improv exercise

Materials

Video of episode(s) of I Love Lucy (or you can use video
clips from the web — see Selected Websites, below.

Optional: A videotape of American Masters: Lucille Ball

VCR and monitor

Internet-connected computers in the classroom for student research.
Alternatively, you can print materials from the web for handouts
– see Selected Websites, below.

For the improv exercise, it will help to have a list of emotional
states written up in advance. See the improv exercise for some ideas.

Selected Websites

Bookmark or print pictures of female actresses from
these sites. The goal is to contrast pictures of glamourous actresses
of the 30s and 40s and 50s with pictures of Lucille Ball, as a comic
actress. This will be part of a discussion activity.

Knows how to view the past in terms of the norms and values of
the time

]]>http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/lessons/lucille-ball-whats-so-funny/lesson-overview/1285/feed/1Diego Rivera: Art as the Universal Language: Lesson Overviewhttp://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/lessons/diego-rivera-art-as-the-universal-language/lesson-overview/125/
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/lessons/diego-rivera-art-as-the-universal-language/lesson-overview/125/#commentsSat, 27 Aug 2005 22:25:21 +0000daniel rosshttp://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/?p=125The question of ownership of art has been debated for centuries. Many support the view that since art is essential for human life it can’t just belong to the few. Diego Rivera, a renowned artist, said that art is the universal language and it belongs to all mankind. The American Master’s series lessons for teachers on Diego Rivera will involve students in discussions on the topics including the nature of art, what purposes it serves, and how Rivera’s art reflected what was happening in the world during the time period of his paintings. Activities in this lesson include writing a short story based on one of Diego Rivera’s murals, as well as creating a class mural.

Understands the social and economic impact of the Great Depression (e.g., the impact of the depression on industry and workers; the response of local and state officials in combating the resulting economic and social crises; the effects of the depression on American families and on ethnic and racial minorities; the effect on gender roles; the victimization of African Americans and white sharecroppers)

Understands the impact of the Great Depression on American culture (e.g., art, literature, and music, and the government’s role in promoting artistic expression; how the works of various American artists reflected American conditions in the 1930s and influenced the New Deal)

Understands the spread of Progressive ideas and the successes of the Progressive movement (e.g., how intellectuals, religious leaders, and writers alerted the public to the problems of urban industrial society; Progressive social reforms in education, conservation, and the “Americanization” of immigrants; contributions of governors such as Hiram Johnson, Robert La Follette, and Charles Evans Hughes)